Magazia Holidays

Magazia is a rural hamlet in the middle of Paxos, a tiny Greek island just south of Corfu. It’s a one-track place where everything is spread along a 500-metre stretch of road. You get a couple of village shops, 1 taverna, the local bakery – and a friendly little kafenion. Country tracks lead through the nearby olive groves, so it feels like a complete rural escape. But in fact the island’s capital is just 5 minutes’ drive away.

There are a couple of beaches 5 minutes’ drive from Magazia. Marginally closest is Harami Beach in the north – it’s the liveliest beach on the island with waterskiing and windsurfing on offer. Over on the east coast is the very secluded Kipos Beach, backed by fields of olive groves – you can actually only get to it on foot. It’s mostly pebbly all round Paxos, but 15 minutes’ drive to the south there’s a manmade sandy beach at Mogonissi.

The capital Gaios is just down the road. It’s still a small village though, centred on a pretty pink-walled church down by the harbour. From Gaios you can take a short boat trip around the islet of St Nicholas, with views across the water to a ruined Venetian fortress. A few minutes’ drive out of Gaios is the ancient hamlet of Ozias – it’s been inhabited for over 2,000 years and today you can walk around the ruins of two Venetian churches.